302 The American Geologist. November, i899 
matter would sometimes be thrown to the hight of 200 feet. 
Almost continuously it went higher than one hundred feet. 
This process was going on with almost no interruption, while, 
at intervals, great volumes of smoke poured forth from the 
edges of the crater. The principal cone was about 150 feet 
high on the North side. The other sides were considerably 
lower. A deep crack between 30 and 40 feet wide ran off in an 
easterly direction. The cone itself was nearly, if not altogether, 
200 feet across the top, filled with lava at a white heat, never 
still, ever leaping sometimes higher, sometimes lower, ever fall- 
ing back upon itself or spilling in flakes over the side of the 
cone. Explosions were numerous almost continuous, while all 
the time, the rushing roaring sound of the fire fountains filled 
the air. 
Wonderful as was this sight, the view of the river of fire was 
not less so. It rushed through the opening at the speed of a 
race-horse, and, plunging over a fall of perhaps fifteen or 
twenty feet, went madly through a deep channel down the 
side of the mountain. It rushed along with such force that the 
surface was marked with undulations like the waves of the sea. 
An engineer, connected with one of the exploring parties, 
estimated that the channel was fifty feet wide, that the flowing 
lava was ten feet deep, and that its velocity was forty feet to the 
second. Sometimes the flow would seem to lessen but ever 
after such lulls it would come forth as strong and as fiercely 
flowing as before. 
This cone, the lower one, is about a mile above the princi- 
pal cone of the flow of 1881. The other is nearly five miles fur- 
ther up, nearer the summit of the mountain. It will be remem- 
bered that, in the flow of 1881, the cones from which the lava 
came were situated on a fissure which followed the course of a 
"divide." In, the recent flow the lava came from cones which 
were situated on the Kea side of this "divide". From these 
cones came two main flows, wdiich, joining presently, crossed 
the flow of 1855 and ran down the slope between the 1855 flow 
and that of 1843. 
Several smaller streams following depressions along the 
ridge were either lost or, meeting with an obstacle, were turned 
down the slope uniting with the main flow. One of these 
streams, being turned aside, flowed around the Kau side of the 
